


After

by tcnystcnks



Series: the aftermath [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: (but i do love her guys), (i just realised i used these tags to rant about Helen Cho), (oops), (she's not actually in the fic for long), Gen, Helen Cho makes an appearance, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), an asian woc who's the lead in her field?, bc i actually adore her, but working towards a fix it?, nebulous future, not a fix it, sign me tf up, that Tony Stark clearly respects and defers to?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 10:08:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16951998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tcnystcnks/pseuds/tcnystcnks
Summary: After; he didn't move for 5 days.





	After

After, he didn’t move for 5 days. 

He sat on the red rubble clutching his muddy wrist for five days, waiting,  _willing_ , for the damn thing to start turning to dust. 

He waited, wheezing and coughing up blood from his ruptured lung, to die. 

Except, he never did. 

Anthony Edward Stark sat in the middle of a dead planet, surrounded by the ashes of the kid and waited for a death that never came. 

~~He was so goddamned tired of not dying.~~

~~–~~

On the sixth day, he pushed himself off the ground, stumbled towards the blue woman that had set Quill off earlier and said, “I could fix that for you”

She looked up from where she was re-arranging wires in her left arm, pulled out a knife that he wasn’t aware she had, and slashed him against the cheek. 

~~The metallic tang was becoming a familiar taste against his tongue~~

He staggered back a few steps as she leapt up, pressing the point of her blade against his adam’s apple.

“Are you going to kill me?” he asked after she didn’t move for 5 minutes.

“Yes, she replied, her voice gravelly.

He smiled his first smile in 6 days, “Good.”

She sheathed her blade and thrust her hand towards him, “Fix it or I cut off your head.”

“Don’t tempt me,” he said back, before flexing his fingers so that the nanotech would retract and leave his fingers barren. 

–

On the tenth day she said, “I am Nebula, daughter of Thanos and sister to Gamora”

–

On the twelfth day he replied, “I am Tony, son of Howard and brother to -” he took a rattling breath, “James Rhodes.”

–

On the thirteenth day she said, “Thanos knew your name.”

He replied, “He’s been in my head for 6 years. He knows a lot more than that I presume”

She shifted so she was facing him, her one metallic eye whirring softly, “I have known Thanos for 500 years. I have never known Thanos to fear anyone. And then I watch as he fights you. And I know Thanos to fear one person.”

Tony smiled, all bloody teeth and curled lip,  _“If you could make God bleed_ ,” he whispered, pausing his fiddling in her leg, “ _people would cease to believe in Him_ ” 

–

On the twenty third day, she pushed him off her flesh shoulder and declared, “We leave for Terran today.”

He froze, ice seeping through his veins before he managed, “There’s nothing left on Earth for me. I failed.”

She spun around on her heel, both eyes fixated on him, “You go back for your Rhodey,” and then softer, “and you stay for me.”

He furrowed his brows, “What do you have on Earth?”

“I have a raccoon to yell out,” she said, joints clinking softly as she bent down to pull him up and shoulder his weight, “and I was promised a new body.” 

He swallowed, “Okay. We’ll go to Earth. But don’t expect your pet to be alive.” 

She clicked her tongue against her mouth, lips spread into a full smile, “He is like you, unkillable. Trust me, I have tried,” she braced her arm against his chest as she eased him up the ramp of the space craft, “And he is like me, unmade. You will like him, a shiny broken thing for you to collect.”

–

On the two hundred and fifty sixth day, he fell out of Nebula’s arms and into Rhodey’s and had enough to presence to digest that Rhodey was alive before he collapsed. 

–

On the two hundred and seventieth day, he opened his eyes to the looming figures of Helen and a young woman, and passed out again

–

On the two hundred and seventy first day, he woke up thrashing and screaming against restraints around his limbs under sturdy arms pushed back against his shoulders and his eyes latched onto- “Platypus?”

He felt Rhodey hum against him as the restraints were removed and Rhodey shifted him so he was enveloped by Rhodey’s form- his head against Rhodey’s chest and Rhodey’s chin on his shoulder. 

“You had us worried for a second Tones.”

Tony closed his eyes and pressed against Rhodey’s chest; smiling softly as the arms around him tightened and grounded him. 

“Us?” he whispered after a few seconds

He felt Rhodey nudge him until he opened his eyes to meet him.

“Yeah Tones,” Rhodey said, eyes crinkling, “I don’t think Nebula left your bedside for the first week, muttering and grumbling under her breath about how her stupid mechanic was trying to be the biggest broken thing”

Tony grinned, “Isn’t she amazing?”

Rhodey chuckled softly, “A fine addition to your collection of shiny, broken things”

“She told you about that did she?”

“Yeah, we bonded over the past 2 weeks. You terrified us Tones. All of us. Even Rogers.”

Tony didn’t know what to say to that, so he just wriggled a little and leaned more heavily against Rhodey; smiling when he caught the glint of metal in the crumpled figure at the foot of his bed.

–

On the two hundred and seventy seventh day, he woke up to sunlight on his face, Rhodey behind him and Nebula sprawled against him; and felt something settle inside for the first time since- since,  _since_.

–

On the three hundredth day, he hobbled up to Rogers; Rhodey and Nebula supporting him under each arm and said, “I know how to get them all back.”

_Fin._

 

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr saw it first](https://tcnystcnks.tumblr.com/post/179428169852/after)  
> [my ig](https://www.instagram.com/tcnystcnks/)  
> -A
> 
> if you recognise where the line that Tony says on Day 13 is from; leave kudos ^-^  
> (pls leave kudos otherwise too)


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